‘Well, some people are less than keen to have anything to do with you people. Besides, he was planning to use it against Björn.’

‘So, blackmail?’ Karen says doubtfully. ‘He was going to use his grandfather’s murder to extort Björn?’

‘Look, I don’t know and, to be honest, I don’t give a shit. But he did say he was going to drop the bomb at the party unless Björn did as he was told. “I’m going to break the bastard” were the exact words he used.’

Just then, Karen’s phone buzzes and the coroner’s name lights up the screen.

‘Hiya, Kneought,’ Karen says. ‘Could you hold on for just one moment?’

Odd has already opened the door and is halfway out the car. Then he turns around and fixes her with a level look.

‘Keep me out of this,’ he says. ‘I never forget a promise.’

Chapter 68

68

‘You’re not as dumb as you look,’ Kneought Brodal says.

Karen can feel her pulse quicken. She forces herself to listen patiently while Brodal expounds on the deficiencies of the material he was sent and explains that it must be a mere fraction of the documentation Fredrik Stuub had available to him and that what he’d read should rightfully be viewed as little more than a very rough summary.

‘All right, all right, I get it!’ she exclaims finally. ‘But you’re saying I was right about what it implies? Some kind of link between mould at Groth’s distillery and damage to human nerve cells?’

‘Yes, you were right about that part. The results are hardly statistically significant, but it does look like Fredrik Stuub found – or at least thought he’d found – a link between the stuff leaking out of the warehouses and a disproportionate number of certain medical diagnoses.’

‘Alzheimer’s?’

‘Among others. Apparently, he was able to show a small but measurable increase in the number of diagnosed cases in populations living near distilleries.’

‘Near Groth’s, you mean? Because I don’t think there are any other distilleries in this country, are there? Well, except down on Frisel, but they make gin and snaps. Did he find the same pattern down there?’

‘No, they don’t use barrels. Baudoinia requires spirits maturing in wooden barrels to form and contaminate the surrounding environment.’

‘But he did find a correlation on Noorö?’

‘Sadly, yes, and not only there. According to Stuub’s documentation, he found the same statistical increase in degenerative dementia in other countries in areas where spirits are matured in barrels. And at a younger age than in the control groups, too, I’m afraid.’

‘Are you sure?’